Rain Water
by Miah The Storm Wolf
Summary: A young girl is finding out it's not that hard to survive in the World That Never Was, until a blonde musician complicates things. This is the story of how they become FRIENDS and what happens after his final encounter with the key bearer.
1. Chapter 1

Rain Water

By Miah The Storm Wolf

I've been here for a while now. I don't really know where _here_ is, let alone how I got _here_. It looks like a city, but it's completely devoid of life… unless you count those black things. I call them shadows because of the way they move. When I woke up here, not remembering much of anything other than my name, they were the first things I saw. There are hundreds of them here in this dark place. That's something else. I've never seen the sun here. Everything is always bathed in moonlight, even though I've never seen the moon either. I don't question it though. After all, if it weren't for that hidden moon, I'd never have seen the shadows. They're kind of creepy, but weak enough and they don't follow very far. Most of them can be easily out run. At least the little round-headed ones can be. The bigger ones with the long antennae pose more of a threat. They're fast and powerful, but they never come into My Place. Then again, _I_ can barely get into my place.

You see there's this huge pit right at the center of the city with a castle floating above it. Before you ask, no, I don't live in the castle. I live in a dead-end alley just to the left of the road leading to the castle. I actually have to use a rope to swing around and get in, but it's protected from the shadows and gives me a great view of one of the castle balconies. Ninth floor if I'm counting right.

It's not so bad here, but I have to go to other places for food. Izzy helps me with that. Izzy is one of the black shadow things, but he's nice. He's my buddy. More importantly he opens portals and leads me to places where I can get life's necessities. You know; food, clothes… soap. In return I let him stay in My Place where he's safe from the other shadows. He's a round-head, but he's a lot smaller than the others. He probably got chased a lot before I came along. He can't talk, but he seems to understand me. We both love music. I know this because he woke me up one morning (It might have been evening, hard to tell with no Sun.) to show me a guy on the castle balcony. He had blonde hair and was playing some sort of string instrument. I didn't recognize the song, but it was beautiful. I had never heard anything so wonderful. He played for about an hour I'd guess (no watch) before disappearing back inside.

And so it went. For weeks Izzy would wake me up, we'd listen to Blondie, and then go to another world to earn some munny. Killing the black things does give us _some_ munny, but not much. Besides, it makes Izzy nervous. Eventually I started waking up on my own, before Izzy. Recently I've just been letting Izzy sleep in. Little guy deserves the rest. One thing I noticed about Blondie is that he always plays with his eyes closed. He never looked around or came out and _not_ played… until this morning. This morning he finished playing, opened his eyes, and looke. Dead. At. Me.


	2. Chapter 2

I

"Izzy, Izzy, wake up!" A young woman was shaking a black lump about the size of a cat. The small black creature sat up rubbing its eyes and clicking groggily at its friend. Her midnight hair fell over frantic looking green eyes as she spoke again. "Come on! We need to get out of here NOW." Izzy merely cocked his head to the side and raised one antenna. She sighed exasperatedly. "Blondie spotted us. We need to clear out before he gets down here." Izzy raised both antennae in surprise before leaping out of his little bed. Running to the edge of the pit he opened a portal and motioned for her to follow him. Without hesitating she leapt through the portal, closely followed by her shadow companion. After Izzy stepped through, he found his friend standing ramrod straight, every muscle tense. Clicking softly he reached up and took her hand. She glanced blankly at their joined hands. Izzy clicked again, rather worriedly, but this time he gave her hand a small tug as well. She nodded weakly and allowed him to lead her through the even darker realm of the shadows. He led her to an area that already had five more portals. Each one had a piece of cardboard underneath it with hastily drawn pictures. They looked like they were done by a five year old. This seemed to snap the girl out of her daze. "Izzy, did you make these?" He nodded excitedly and grinned. She flinched. "Iz, I love ya, but that's really creepy. I swear, you have to be the only shadow out there _with fangs_, blindingly white fangs. You've been using my toothpaste haven't you?" Izzy rubbed the back of his head. "Oh well, better get more." She approached the portals. "Geez Izzy, You can't draw worth crap. I can't even tell what most of these are." As she was inspecting the drawings, a faint clicking other than Izzy was heard. It became louder and louder until she finally turned to see exactly what had her so nervous in the first place; dozens of shadow creatures. "This one looks good." She grabbed Izzy and ran through the middle portal.

A moment later both she and Izzy landed face first in dry, dusty soil. The temperature made her immensely glad that she had decided to wear a loose-fitting t-shirt that day. "Amaya! It's so good to see you on this beautiful morning."

She turned to glare at the overly cheery vendor. He only smiled as she groaned and got up. "Morning to you too, Niyoosha."

"What brings you to Agrahbah so early?"

Dusting herself off, she replied, "Food," She looked down at Izzy who was watching her rather intently, "and work," she finished. Izzy gave an approving nod.

"Well, I could always use help around the shop. Fasting ended yesterday, so there should be many customers looking for food."

"Cleaning and fetching merchandise? Sounds good. What's the pay?"

Niyoosha eyed her critically. "Ninety gold pieces. Is good pay for servant work."

She took a moment to calculate in her head, 'Three gold to one munny is only thirty munny!' Her eyes narrowed. "I am not a servant, nor do I possess the mind of one. Two hundred pieces or you can face the rush alone."

Niyoosha was a business man, but he was also fair. "One hundred-fifty and I'll throw in a pomegranate."

Amaya glanced at Izzy. They both loved pomegranates. "Make it two and you have a deal."

"Agreed."

Ten hours later found both Amaya and Izzy trudging through the portal to their home world. They couldn't open a portal directly to their alley. Portalling isn't an exact science. There was too high of a chance that they'd come out over the pit, so Izzy concentrated on a street a ways away from the castle. They ended up in front of a large skyscraper about two blocks from their alley. Izzy climbed onto his friend's left shoulder. On her right she carried a cloth sac containing their groceries, pomegranates included. "You ready?" She felt more than saw his nod before breaking into a sprint. Immediately shadows began rising from the ground, but she passed them before they could even move. The friends ran all the way to the pit, dodging swipes from the bigger shadows as they went. By the time they actually reached the pit the other shadows had stopped following. Feeling safe Amaya collapsed against the wall panting. While she was catching her breath, Izzy ran to a nearby lamppost. He began struggling with what appeared to be a latch on the box at its base. Amaya watching him falter for a moment before standing. With a smirk on her face and her hands in her blue jean's pockets, she sauntered to the lamppost as well. Izzy was still fumbling with the latch as Amaya kicked the box, causing its door to swing open. Izzy narrowed his yellow eyes at her. She smiled sweetly in return as she reached into the box and pulled out a grappling hook attached to a long rope. Tossing the hook up and over the lamppost, she made sure it was secure before swinging both herself and Izzy around the building separating their home from the castle road.

Normally she would land in their home, unload her bag, and tie the rope to a conveniently placed hook. Today, however, there was an obstacle in her landing area. Izzy leapt out of the way just in time for Amaya and the obstacle to fall in a tangle of cloth and flesh, the bag of groceries flying out of her grasp. Dazed and disoriented, Amaya was snapped back to reality by Izzy jumping and pointing at the black lump underneath her, his rapid clicking clearly showing his distress. Upon looking down to where Izzy was pointing, she immediately scrambled off. The black lump groaned and rolled over. Amaya's eyes widened. "Blondie?!"


End file.
